Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €558.75 ($609) per tonne on Wednesday, up by €2.08 per tonne from €556.67 per tonne on Tuesday.
The index was up by €4.37 per tonne week on week and by €17.92 per tonne month on month.
Mills in Northern Europe were heard offering HRC for the first quarter of 2025 at €600-620 per tonne ex-works, and in some cases, offers were as high as €640 per tonne ex-works.
These price levels, however, were still not accepted in deals, Fastmarkets understands.
But expectations for price increases seem to have supported a slight pick-up in trading, industry sources told Fastmarkets.
Some deals for HRC were reported at €560-570 per tonne ex-works.
Buyer sources estimated the workable market level at €550-560 per tonne ex-works.
But expectations about how the HRC market will develop in the short and medium term remained mixed, Fastmarkets heard.
Mills in Northern Europe were hoping for a price rebound in the first quarter of 2025, supported mainly by the limited imports of HRC.
A recent string of trade defense measures, including a steel safeguard review and an anti-dumping investigation into HRC imports from Japan, Vietnam, India, and Egypt were likely to result in a stronger reliance on domestic supplies, and that should support a recovery in domestic flat steel prices in Europe, participants have told Fastmarkets.
But some industry sources remained skeptical, saying that any price rebound would be short-lived because demand from the main steel-consuming sectors remains low.
“Any [price] rebound in 2025 will result in a very quick fall after that because [the potential price increase] would be supplier-driven,” a trader told Fastmarkets.
In Southern Europe, Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy at €551.67 per tonne on Wednesday, unchanged from the previous day.
The Italian index was up by €0.24 per tonne week on week and by €16.67 per tonne month on month.
Offers for HRC in Italy for the first quarter of 2025 were heard at €620 per tonne delivered, which would net back to €610 per tonne ex-works.
But no deals have been reported at these levels.
“There is not a single transaction, even no negotiations at these levels,” a buyer source based in Italy told Fastmarkets.
December-delivery material was also available in the market at €580-590 per tonne delivered, which would equal €570-580 per tonne ex-works, industry sources told Fastmarkets.
But market activity remained subdued.
Fastmarkets’ sources estimated the workable market level at €540-560 per tonne ex-works.
The buyer source added that there were very few transactions recently due to a mismatch of price ideas among buyers and sellers, with producers offering too high levels, and buyers hoping for more significant discounts.
Trading with imported HRC also remained quiet.
“There is not a single viable option in terms of imports,” the buyer source said.
Local buyers were reluctant to accept HRC offers from the Asian mills due to the trade risks, while offers from Turkey, seen as the only “safe” origin recently, remained at comparatively high levels to be workable.
Turkish HRC was on offer to Italy at €580-600 per tonne CFR, including the anti-dumping duty, Fastmarkets understands.
